Knicks Morning News (Thursday, Feb 28 2013)

The smallest player on the court received the kind of treatment from the Madison Square Garden crowd that Kobe Bryant and LeBron James usually hear, and it was deserved. Stephen Curry put on a shooting show that had the place buzzing.

For most of the first half Wednesday night, J.R. Smith was the only Knick who made a 3-pointer. He was 2-for-4, while the team was 4-for-14, hitting only two long balls late in the second quarter.
Those misses continued after halftime, and the Knicks finished the game 11-for-34 (32.4 percent) from downtown.
But Smith continued to sizzle. In fact, while Stephen Curry was going off in the second half — connecting on seven 3-pointers — the Knicks’ sixth man had two big, quick-release 3-pointers down the stretch that gave his team the lead both times.

They doubled teamed him. They sent traps at him. They tried face-guarding him.
But, really, there was only one thing the New York Knicks could do to stop Stephen Curry on Wednesday night.
“Just hope that he misses,” Carmelo Anthony said after the Knicks’ 109-105 win over the Golden State Warriors.
He didn’t miss much.
Curry channeled his inner Reggie Miller at Madison Square Garden, scoring a career-high and NBA season-high 54 points on just 28 shots.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Knicks received bad news: Rasheed Wallace needs surgery and will be out for eight weeks with a broken bone in his left foot.
The team had no immediate answer at backup center, as Marcus Camby’s return from a strained left plantar remains uncertain.
But who needs a backup center when your starting center records 16 points, a career-high 28 rebounds, two steals and a block? That’s exactly what Tyson Chandler did on Wednesday night in the Knicks’ 109-105 win over the Golden State Warriors.

Stephen Curry placed himself in that rarefied air Wednesday night with a performance at the World’s Most Famous Arena that was every bit as mesmerizing as anything the aforementioned group has produced. The big difference, of course, is that Jordan, LeBron, Kobe and Reggie capped their memorable moments with a victory.

Andre Miller scored the go-ahead layup with 24.9 seconds left against his former team and the Denver Nuggets held off the Portland Trail Blazers 111-109 on Wednesday night for their third straight victory.

Golden State guard Stephen Curry scored a NBA season-high 54 points but only earned praise and not a win as the New York Knicks prevailed 109-105 against the Warriors at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

Golden State Coach Mark Jackson said he did not think a lot about his first game as an N.B.A. coach at Madison Square Garden. But when Jackson entered the Garden before Wednesday’s game, he said he was reminded of how special the arena was and how significant the moment was.

Coach Mike Woodson called Rasheed Wallace’s ongoing foot surgery “a blow,â? but he hasn’t given up on the defensive forward making a return for the playoffs.
The Knicks’ fears regarding Wallace were realized before Wednesday night’s 109-105 win over the Warriors at the Garden. The team announced…

Michael Jordan turned 50 this month and last night Stephen Curry turned the Garden into his 50-point playground â?? just like His Airness used to. The difference, however, was Jordan would have willed his team to victory, which Curry could not.
Carmelo Anthony poured in 35 points, Tyson Chandler ripped down…

On any normal night, Tyson Chandler might have been the first and the last player discussed regarding the Knicks’ victory at the Garden.
But seeing an opponent â?? seeing anybody â?? score 54 points will sort of divert the conversation.
So Chandler’s spectacular, career-high total of 28 rebounds, the second highest…

No one needed a degree in logic, nuclear physics or even animal husbandry to figure where the ball was going for Golden State with roughly a minute and a half left last night and the game tied. Stephen Curry had 54 points. Every other Warrior had 51. Figure it was…

The Golden State Warriors trudged into the Garden last night coming off a physical, emotional war in Indiana. They entered without their suspended All-Star power forward David Lee and injured center Andrew Bogut.
So Stephen Curry, who toiled 37 minutes in Indiana, figured he might have to be special.
But…

It Was already going to be a special night for Mark Jackson, who was coaching his first game at Madison Square Garden, where his basketball dreams took root. But it became even more special by the way Stephen Curry made his coach proud.
Even in defeat, Jackson couldn’t find…

David Lee did not receive a warm, fuzzy reception at Madison Square Garden as a member of the Warriors Wednesday night. But the former Knick didn’t get booed and trashed, either. In fact, Lee heard nothing, saw nothing at all.
That’s what happens when you get suspended by…

37 comments on “Knicks Morning News (Thursday, Feb 28 2013)”

I have to take issue with the line that Curry would have torched anyone last night.
Listen, confidence is everything, and for years now the Knicks perimeter defenders have been horrible. So guards coming to play the Knicks know they will get open looks, know they’ll get penetration and simply know they are going to go off…to varying degrees depending on the talent level.
But I’m having trouble recalling when the Kicks faced a good guard and didn’t get torched.
The fact is, until the Knicks guards show any ability or interest in keeping their opponent in front of them, show any side to side quickness or any ability to anticipate a cut, good guards are going to kill them.
Ad it is simply too much to ask for our bigs to react to and stop quick guards n their own. They aren’t as quick. Help defense works when it is help, not when the guard is now a step and a half past our perimeter defender and now must fend for themselves against a guy with quickness and handle.
Either Woodson comes up with a scheme that addresses this perimeter weakness or he gets new guards. Ray Felton can’t play with good guards. Shump is not 100 percent and may never get there. Kidd is showing age and may have even overused early. Ad now you need to give Prigioni more minutes. The guy is a pest.
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One other point: people harp on Stat’s plus minus. It’s not fair. He lays a lot with the second team and with no other decent defender big. W already know he isn’t good on D, but when he’s out there he has disinterested defenders around him. The man has been scoring almost at will. It is amazing to me that people aren’t seeing this. Why is he not getting more feeds? Whether he gets dishes from Melo, or backing down defenders on the block, he’s become a man among boys again.
I’m not sure I’m too happy with what Woodson is doing. It’s time to adjust.
Start Tyson, Stat and Melo, and give Prigioni more opportunities to run with that line up.

Yea, there’s no such thing as a defense that can stop a player like Curry from making pull up 3’s. In fact, most NBA defenses are designed to give up those looks because it is literally impossible to actually guard everyone properly on a pick and roll. If Steph Curry gets 54 a night after torching the much better Pacers defense, then you don’t complain that better defense might have limited him to 48. Hell if David Lee had been out for the Pacers game then Curry probably would have score more…

Juany8:
Hell if David Lee had been out for the Pacers game then Curry probably would have score more…

Couldn’t agree more, don’t get why there are so many people that think adding Lee would’ve meant that Curry gets 54 and Lee gets his usual 20-10 and we lose by 30. Seems more likely to me that the bockers would’ve had an easier W with Curry shouldering less of the offense last night.

custer: Couldn’t agree more, don’t get why there are so many people that think adding Lee would’ve meant that Curry gets 54 and Lee gets his usual 20-10 and we lose by 30. Seems more likely to me that the bockers would’ve had an easier W with Curry shouldering less of the offense last night.

Lee would have helped on the boards, but you can’t have a much better offense than having a player consistently make pull up 3’s. At that point you just give that player the ball every time down the floor.

yeah that was great, if only because it makes clear how little is really known about advanced stats. And as a few of us have said, the stuff that is publicly available is just the top molecule of water of the whole iceberg. Hopefully the Knicks are one of those really digging into this. Can’t remember where I read it but I think I read something about how the Knicks are actually very active when it comes to this stuff – but since it’s behind Dolan’s iron curtain, we’ll never hear about it.

Ugh, hate that headline. It suggest that advanced stats are somehow at fault for “slowing our understanding of the game.” whereas the article seems to suggest that if anything, it’s teams’ disinclination to share the data they collect that is slowing our understanding of/the evolution of advanced stats.

Very interesting article John, I’d love to have access to all of that data to just mess around with lol. Without access it’s hard to come to any conclusions, but a very simple analysis would be to figure out where a player likes to drive from and prevent him from taking those types of moves. Or analyzing which players are the best at preventing opponents from getting in the paint, or which perimeter defenders tend to stay the closest to someone who has the ball. I don’t think it’ll be possible to come up with some simple formula that can simply list how good each player is, but that serves no real purpose besides being a geeky advanced fantasy basketball league.

funny, I read somewhere that the reason that Felton was able to block that late baseline jumper of Curry’s was that he had seen him practicing it on the floor beforehand (or maybe even in practice the day before?). old school scouting!! :)

1) what some consider to be a 6th man of the year candidate/borderline all-star in J.R. Smith

2) a former starter and multiple all-star still (age-wise, anyway) in his prime in Amar’e

3) someone who is considered one of the most dangerous 3-point threats in the league in Novak

Add to that, I believe it was Tyson who said just a few weeks ago something to the effect of “I think we have one of the best benches in the league.” My how things change. But I guess I do sort of agree with the article in that our bench does seem awfully thin lately, or perhaps that’s just a product of coach keeping it thin i.e. not going 12 deep lately.

Any statistical conclusion must be paired with hard observation. All of these possessions are tracked events, it is very easy to tell for instance that Novak needs more help than almost anyone else on this team to get a shot off. The statistical evidence? How very rarely he ever touches the ball and how easy it is for someone within a few feet of him to simply prevent him from taking a shot. This information isn’t in the box score, but these cameras prove the data exists. It’s quantifiable, defenders tilting towards Melo is an observable and measurable effect. Wonder how one would go about getting access without being mega rich…

jon abbey:
the bench isn’t so bad, Smith was awesome last game and Amar’e has been a pretty consistent offensive force. Martin needs to play more and Kidd (still somehow a starter) needs to contribute or sit.

The bench players are good, but the units are all terrible. Without Chandler to cover the paint, the team’s defense totally collapses, although hopefully Martin has a positive impact (can’t possible be worse than Novak). Unfortunately, bench lineups do often feature Novak, and when he’s at the 3 Amar’e and Melo can’t hope to rotate well enough to cover for him. They need either an interior defender or a wing stopper, and the sad thing is injuries are preventing those very players from giving the Knicks effective minutes.

The bench should be better but Woodson’s rotations are wrong. The starting lineup is awkward and that sets the tone for the rest of the lineups. The starters should be Felton, Shumpert, Melo, Martin, Chandler with JR, Kidd, Amare and (hopefully) Camby coming off the with a little Pablo sprinkled in. Then you mix and match based on offense/defense combination balance with rules such as: Amare should always be paired with Martin, Chandler or Camby. The guard rotations can be mixed and matched a little more but Raymond, Kidd or Pablo needs to be in at all times with Kidd usually running with one or the other. It’s not that hard and Woodson is over complicating it and I frankly feel like it is costing us the opportunity to find good chemistry.

Some thorough fine-grain stat analysis here. I probably need to re-read it a few more times, but here’s me thinking aloud about the correlations shown lol.

1. Kevin Durant is a freak of nature. His TS% is virtually identical facing good (top 8) defenses and bad (bot. 8) defenses over the past three years. Lebron passes more against bad defenses, and crashes the boards more against good defenses.

2. Jrue Holiday and D-Wade benefit a lot from playing bad defenses. Both average +10% pts/min against bottom 8 defenses and -10% pts/min against top 8 defenses. (league average: +3.3% vs bot. 8/-5% vs. top 8)

3. If you are wondering how Melo grades out: Stable TS% no matter who he’s facing — slight improvement in TS% against bad defenses (+4%), little change vs. good defenses. (-0.2%) Gets more assists against bad defenses (+11% ast/min.) Draws fewer fouls against both bad defenses and good defenses (-9.5% FTA/min vs. bot. 8, -4.8% vs. top 8), which is odd. Maybe he settles for more jumpers against good defenses and feels free to shoot more jumpers against bad teams.

Correction re: Melo’s 4 TS% boost vs. bottom 8 defenses — only Aldridge (+5.2%) and Lopez (4.3%) benefit more. Given he draws fewer fouls/min against bad defenses, this is odder still. Either he’s taking that many more threes or his whistle is really that poor. KD is next at +3.9 TS%.

I forgot to add re: Wade and Holiday: Both drop off significantly in TS% facing good defenses than league average (Wade: -5.8%, Holiday -6.5%). The league average is -5%, which at first didn’t seem so bad to me until you see that the next-largest reduction in TS% is James Harden at -3.8%. Most of the top scorers analyzed showed relatively stable TS%.

I think we should start playing our best players together more (like we would in the playoffs hopefully), especially Melo-Amar’e-Chandler. Maybe Kidd-Smith-Melo-Amar’e-Chandler– mainly the big three plus a mix of Kidd, Smith, Felton, and Priggie Smalls. If only Kidd could find his three point shot… In the playoffs the differences between lineups and match-ups are amplified; we should start trying to more seriously find out what the best mix is. If Shump can get it together he could be a useful defensive stopper, but it’s hard to keep such a black hole on offense against the best teams.

The weirdest thing about Noah was that I was expecting him to go in the top three picks of the 2006 Draft (where the Bulls had the Knicks’ pick). I figured he would go in those picks and I was so pissed. And then he went back to school so I was very happy. Then his last year in college wasn’t as good, so when he came out the next year and the Bulls had the Knicks’ pick again, they got him with the #9 pick! Argh!! We were so close to the Bulls just botching the Knicks’ two picks completely (the first year they took Aldridge but traded him for Tyrus Thomas like morons).

Noah is a beast. It would be a joke if he’s not first team All-NBA. He might be the most valuable interior defender in the league and is one of the best passing big men in the league, especially from the high post. Also got to love the fire he brings to the game.

Honestly I think it’s fair to ask how the coaching staff hasn’t come up with some method to at least slow opposing point guards down. Curry would have lit up anybody last night, but it’s not like he’s the first point guard to have one of their best nights of the season against us.

Almost every elite or even good point guard in the league has had a monster game against us this season. Paul, Irving, Curry, Holiday, Rondo, Lin, Nelson, Kemba fucking Walker, etc. The switching is such a huge problem I can’t believe it’s not evident to the coaches who sit on the bench with these guys every night as we manage to give up wide open 3’s and not protect the rim when Chandler goes further than 5 feet from the rim.

Is it unreasonable to expect Felton to fight over a screen by the center rather than go underneath and switch on to him? How many times can this possibly happen before we realize the problem? What is the definition of insanity again?

There needs to be a common sense applied on switching. For example if Kidd’s man sets a screen on Felton it might be a good decision to switch. When Chandler’s man sets a screen on Felton that is a different story. A general uptick on the defensive intensity would be nice as well, which to me stems from the coaching staff.

It really is shocking how valuable as Rasheed was for us early on in the season. Really surprised by how much we are missing him, but hopefully Martin and a healthy Camby can make up for his loss. Soon though there aren’t going to be any excuses about guys coming back from injury, the rotation constantly changing or that the Knicks just suck on Fridays. There are answers on the roster but Woodson needs to step…

I’ve just made myself feel a little better by convincing myself that even if the Knicks had their own pick in 2007 they would have taken, like, Acie Law or some stupid shit like that, so in the long run it doesn’t matter. Does anyone seriously think that they would have actually taking Noah there?

I’ve just made myself feel a little better by convincing myself that even if the Knicks had their own pick in 2007 they would have taken, like, Acie Law or some stupid shit like that, so in the long run it doesn’t matter. Does anyone seriously think that they would have actually taking Noah there?

I feel dirty saying this, but I would have trusted Zeke to nail that pick.

Anyone else see the Bill Russell highlight of him in college jumping over a guy for the lay up? That was incredible. He like took off 2 ft after the free throw line and if they could dunk back then it would have been nastier.

The Balkman pick may have been a CAA favor as Balkman had already signed with them, and to be fair, Rondo turned out better than 18 of the other 19 players picked before him, 17 if you count Brandon Roy, so Zeke wasn’t the only fool.

The lottery is a lottery and while advances in scouting and stats will maybe reduce the randomness some, you can’t read the way a player will react in his brain to the new level of competition, and since most guys don’t come in NBA ready, that is one of the most important factors. You also can’t predict health problems too well, as portland fans know all too well.

Speaking of NY lottery moments — remember when Walsh said he was going to draft Steph Curry, only to have GS draft him one pick before ours, leaving us with Jordan Hill? Probably woulda traded him anyway tho…

I mean, if they hadn’t picked Noah it would have been a travesty, given our total dearth of front court options then (and now). We WOW lunatics would have been screaming bloody murder for the past 5 years about how he was the 4th and 5th best player in the country by PAWS in his final two years.

It does hurt knowing that he should be on the Knicks.

Regarding the defense, who exactly do we have who is a good defender on this roster? Shump and Chandler? And Shump is still wobbly while Chandler is playing fine but also holding back because he is the only defender over 6’9 on the roster. Our starting power forward is 6’6. Our backup PF/C is, well, Stat.

I don’t know. Part of me thinks the switching is actually working better than we think and that we might be overachieving relative to our personnel. Maybe that is crazy. It is super painful to watch.

Also, the deadspin article was very interesting. Honestly, and for the record, I have no beef with anyone who thinks the WOW is totally off base. I understand that. As a fan of the WOW and the Knicks myself, I am just very glad to hear that there are actually people in the Knicks FO using advanced analytics and pursuing every possible avenue to value players.

That really was the point right for we WOW loonies. Especially during the Isiah PPG era. Let’s not leave any stone unturned in trying to field a competitive roster. If the Knicks really have a team of guys crunching SportsVu data, that’s pretty satisfying to me given where we have come from.

Brian Cronin:
I’ve just made myself feel a little better by convincing myself that even if the Knicks had their own pick in 2007 they would have taken, like, Acie Law or some stupid shit like that, so in the long run it doesn’t matter. Does anyone seriously think that they would have actually taking Noah there?

Douglas:
Correction re: Melo’s 4 TS% boost vs. bottom 8 defenses — only Aldridge (+5.2%) and Lopez (4.3%) benefit more. Given he draws fewer fouls/min against bad defenses, this is odder still. Either he’s taking that many more threes or his whistle is really that poor. KD is next at +3.9 TS%.

I forgot to add re: Wade and Holiday: Both drop off significantly in TS% facing good defenses than league average (Wade: -5.8%, Holiday -6.5%). The league average is -5%, which at first didn’t seem so bad to me until you see that the next-largest reduction in TS% is James Harden at -3.8%. Most of the top scorers analyzed showed relatively stable TS%.

This is the kind of analysis I like to see. Unfortunately Harden’s numbers seem to suggest he needs to diversify his game a little more against top defenses, I’m sure that will come with time but it means Houston isn’r doing much in the playoffs. Still it’ll be fun to watch the Rockets in the playoffs for once, it’s much more enjoyable if you don’t have a “championship or bust” mentality lol.